Help! On board charger problem. Wiring? Bad bank? Can't figure it out!

[GregeMoose]

I've had a 3 bank Guest charger for sometime. Decided to finally wire up to starter battery. Charger seemed to work fine (light went from red to green)at home. First time on the water my main motor wouldn't turn over (the kicker however did), put in my back-up battery which produced the exact same problems. Two low batteries with just enough power for kicker I thought? Since this started just after me wiring up the charger, I disconnected those wires and everything worked fine! Put them back on and no power again. Now I'm thinking a short in the wiring, I installed. Installed temporay wire accross boat wired up and everything worked fine. Permently installed wire, still working fine (started big motor several times). Tried an hour later and nothing! Kept turning switch on and off and all of a sudden I had power and then again none!Disconnected inline fuse from charger, produced same intermedite problem. I'm totally confused and frustrated, sorry about length of post, could use some ideas!

[Satchmo]

It sounds to me like an intermittent ignition problem that coincidentally showed up when you hooked up your charger lead. I would put a meter or test light on your ignition/starter leads when the problem flares up to determine how far your power is getting. You can also meter the output on that third bank of your charger to see if it is working properly. It doesn't sound like a charger problem to me, but that's just my guess. Greg

[GregeMoose]

Greg,

Thanks for the reply. That could be a possibility except that once when it was in a no start mode, I disconnected the charger wires and it turned over perfect, connected wires and no power, I repeated this senerio several times with exact same results. It would be hard to beleive that the intermittent ignition problem was the cause during this sequence. But, at this point I'm not ruling anything out.

Thanks again! Greg,